Earn Aeroplan Points on Duty-Free and Airport Shopping: The New Club Avolta Partnership

How the Partnership Works

Source: Billy Bishop Airport.

Club Avolta is the loyalty program behind Avolta, the company that runs a large share of airport retail worldwide, including Hudson and Dufry duty-free shops.

Under the deal, Air Canada Aeroplan members earn 1 Aeroplan point for every C$2 spent on eligible purchases at participating Avolta stores, plus purchases made through Club Avolta's Reserve & Collect pre-order service.

Where You Can Earn in Canada

At launch, the Canadian airports in the program are:

• Toronto Pearson (YYZ)
• Billy Bishop Toronto City (YTZ)
• Calgary (YYC)
• Vancouver (YVR)
• Halifax Stanfield (YHZ)

You can also earn at participating U.S. airport shops, including Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), and Chicago O'Hare (ORD).

How to Set It Up

1. Download the Club Avolta app, then sign in or create an account.
2. Link your Aeroplan account and set Aeroplan as your preferred partner.
3. At checkout, scan your Club Avolta QR code.

At Canadian duty-free counters you can also scan your digital Aeroplan card without linking at all. Just note that points are never awarded retroactively, so you have to scan at the time of purchase.

What Earns, and What Comes Next

Right now, earning covers duty-free, convenience, and specialty retail (think Hudson News, Sunglass Hut, and Kiehl's) plus Reserve & Collect pre-orders. Later in 2026, the partnership expands to Avolta's HMSHost dining locations, which covers casual restaurants, quick-service spots, bars, and Grab & Go outlets.

Once fully rolled out, the network reaches close to 1,900 outlets across North America. For most travellers the dining side is the more useful half, so it may be worth waiting for.

The Fine Print Worth Knowing

A few limits from the terms are easy to miss:

• You earn on the pre-tax price, after any discounts, and points round down to the nearest C$2.
• Caps apply: up to 10,000 points per transaction, five transactions per day, and 30 per month.
• Excluded items include tobacco, lottery tickets, gift cards, phone cards, pre-loved goods, and watches.
• Refunds reverse the points.
• Points usually post within 72 hours but can take up to 30 days.
• If you unlink your accounts, there is a 30-day wait before you can re-link.

Separately, Club Avolta membership also gets you 5% off at checkout, whether or not you are chasing points.

Is It Worth It?

Keep your expectations grounded. The earn rate works out to half a point per dollar, and at a fair valuation of roughly 2 cents per Aeroplan point, you are looking at about a penny back per dollar spent. Put a realistic number on it: if you drop C$120 on liquor and a fragrance before a long-haul out of Vancouver, that is 60 points, or a little over a dollar in value. Do that a few times a year and it is a rounding error against what the same card spend earns you.

So this is not a strategy, it is a bonus. The moment it becomes a reason to buy something you did not need, the math stops working, because no loyalty earn at this rate offsets airport markups. The right way to think about it: you were going to buy the bottle anyway, the points cost you nothing extra, and you can layer them on top of whatever your Aeroplan card already pays out on the same purchase. Set it up once, then forget about it and let the points accumulate on their own.

The Bottom Line

For a Canadian traveller, this is a small win that asks almost nothing of you. It will not move your balance the way card spend or the Aeroplan eStore does, but linking takes two minutes and you never have to think about it again. If Pearson, Billy Bishop, Calgary, Vancouver, or Halifax are part of your regular routine and you pick up duty-free now and then, it is worth doing.

And keep an eye on the dining rollout later this year, since food and drink is where most of us actually spend at the airport, and that is the phase that could make this partnership even more useful for everyday travellers.

Happy travels!